Yet another Tory leadership contest!

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On 'This Week' Michael Portillo suggests that we could end up with Clarke v Cameron

He said that the Davis camp were reporting to have the backing of 66MPs, and certainly had more besides.
He also said that Cameron had around 28, Clarke around 22, with 60/70 unknowns.

From that I understood that Davis was still probably safe, at the minute, within the party, and so make the second round.

I didn't see any of the speeches or the conference, however from the general media vibe, particularly last night's Question Time and This Week, it seems that while Davis failed to impress he has solid and strong core support within the parliamentary party, and the Cameron really impressed in the conference, impressing ordinary party members and politics watchers generally. Will it be enough? As yet unclear.

BTW, did anyone else see David Starkey on Question Time calling Douglas Alexander a "stupid little twit" (or words to that effect)?

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Doesn't have to be one of these three...but apparently they are the only ones out of the trap yet?

Outside these three, the only other one to keep an eye on is Fox, who is liekly to eat into Davis's support.

Rifkind is also declared but a rank outsider.

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Inspired by Democratic Hawk and the US Presidency 2008,
Here are Paddy Power's odds on the Tory leadership.

David Cameron   5 - 6   
 
David Davis   13 - 8   
 
Ken Clarke   9 - 2   
 
Liam Fox   12 - 1   
 
Malcolm Rifkind   80 - 1 

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Prediction:
Cameron 91 (+35, mostly from Clarke, but also a handful of Davis)
Davis 54 (-8, gains a couple from Clarke, but loses more to both Fox and Cameron)
Fox 53 (+11, mostly from Davis, a few from Clarke)

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Result:
Cameron 90
Davis 57
Fox 51

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Bye bye Foxy. As I mentioned before he appears to be a family 'nemesis' of sorts, so i'm glad he's out. But...will Davis stay in the race or stand down?

From listening to BBC Radio Five, my understanding is that in such a scenario (Davis dropping out) the third placed candidate (i.e. Fox) would be entitled to then re-enter the race, as it were, before the membership at large.

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Cameron has less than 50% support from the parliamentary party, whether Davis concedes the run-off is his decision but they would be wise to allow Cameron to seek a true mandate from the membership; otherwise, he could become a lame duck 'moderniser' in thrall to the party's right wing

Dave

From just after listening to him speaking just after the result, it is clear Davis does intend to continue the contest.

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The real beauty of the TV debate was Cameron and Davis hailing Ireland as their economic model. Oh the irony of it, they praise a country, which from what I can gather, has bought into the European idea hook, line and sinker

Dave

Having missed the debate, can someone give me a bit more detail what they said about Ireland as an economic model.

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Cameron seemed to do well at Prime Minister's Questions. Fairly confident, didn't seem at all out of depth up against Blair.

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Nick Robinson on The Daily Politics after PMQ's seemed fairly certain that Davis will stay as Shadow Home Secretary, Hague will be Shadow Foreign Secretary, Osbourne will stay as Shadow Chancellor and that Fox may be made Deputy Leader.